Beginner diving in Wreck Valley

[cgvmer]

I have been diving for just over a year, having logged just 16 dive so far, all in warm water, I would like to try a local dive, but find the 100+ft depths and AOW requirements above my current skill level.


Are there any places in dive in the NJ area that are NOT extra deep and don't require AOW ?

 

[Spratman]

The vast majority of the wrecks I've seen are in the 70ft + range. Second of all, if all you've done is warm water and great viz, you need to get some practice. Since neither of those apply to Jersey diving.

Get a couple more dives under your belt, like up at Dutch Springs and sign up for an AOW class. Check out our website www.wreckvalley.com/forum. We have instructors that run classes fairly often.

I strongly suggest that if you are considering cold water and marginal viz diving that it not be on a wreck, it should be in a more control environment like a quarry.

Hope to see ya at DS sometime.

 

[Kamchatka]

Compared to diving at, e.g. Looe Key, NJ diving has less viz, is darker thus requiring a couple of lights, results in 50 to 100 pounds more gear, ~7MM wetsuit or, preferably, a drysuit, thick hood and gloves, MANDATORY descents and ascents on the anchor line (unless you shoot a lift bag), is 20-40 degrees colder, a much longer boat ride, often in much rougher seas, hauling all your own gear, including tanks and weights, on and off the boat, bigger tanks as well as a pony bottle if doubles aren’t used and, in many/most, cases a wreck reel and it’s usually deeper although there are some sites in the 60+/-’ range. Other than that the diving is identical. And, IMNSHO, even more fun. See www.njscuba.net Maybe hire an instructor/DM/? for your dive. You seem to be about an hour from the Belmar/Brielle area. A little further from Barnegat Light. Both areas have lots of boats and shops. Contact them to set it up. See what they say. These have charters out of the Barnegat Light area: www.njwreckdivers.com www.eastcoastdiving.com www.lbiscuba.com

 

[cgvmer]

I am sorry I was not more specific.
Having lived in NJ shore for 45 years and spent many of those years swimming, and boating in this area.

Are there any "legally" accessible shore dives? I thought a shore dive might be a good intro into, low vis colder diving.

 

[RJP]

I have been diving for just over a year, having logged just 16 dive so far, all in warm water, I would like to try a local dive, but find the 100+ft depths and AOW requirements above my current skill level.

Sounds familiar. I starter diving just over a year ago. And coincidentally my dive #17 on May 20th of last year was a NJ Wreck Dive, as was dive #18. (As well as 40 or so of the next 90 logged dives.)

Are there any places in dive in the NJ area that are NOT extra deep and don't require AOW?

There are plenty of NJ Wreck Dives in the 70' range. See my sig for a boat that runs lots of trips that are well within your grasp.

That said, I would get some cold water diving under my weight-belt. I would suggest coming up to Dutch Springs one weekend and even consider doing your AOW. Don't sell yourself short - or give to much reverence to AOW - in that there's probably nothing in AOW skill-wise that's beyond you. Experience-wise, maybe. But the skills in AOW aren't all that difficult. I will PM with some info on some shops that offer AOW up at Dutch, and can then follow-on with some "Intro to NJ Wreck Diving" on a boat.

Hope to see you out there - Ray